


Holding Onto Water

by Estirose



Category: Kamen Rider W (Double)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 08:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1338007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shoutarou contemplates the more unusual aspects of his bond with Philip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holding Onto Water

**Author's Note:**

> Set between 16 and 32.

Shotarou, to be honest, was sore. Sore physically from fighting the latest Dopant in CycloneJoker form, and mentally from when he and Philip changed to FangJoker. Philip probably was too, for the opposite reasons, and much worse. He wasn't a warrior, he was a geek, a weirdo.

And yet, Shoutarou's partner.

Shoutarou reached out mentally, seeing if he could pick up what Philip was feeling without putting the driver on. The ability without the driver was erratic at best, something developed in the early days of their bond when they were both getting used to being Double. In the same way, he could sometimes speak to his partner without the other being in the room. On some inconvenient occasions, he and Philip seemed to be linked subconsciously, to the point where he could tell what Philip was researching and Philip chided him about interrupting his research by thinking too loud. Philip could sometimes use Shoutarou's senses, though it was never the other way around, for which Shoutarou was grateful.

"Philip." Sometimes it helped to focus on his partner's name, or rather, assumed name. Shoutarou didn't think it mattered what Philip's birth name was; he was Philip now and forever.

"Yes, Shoutarou?" The response came back in his head.

"Never mind." He felt weird, having a one-sided verbal conversation while in his bed. Philip could stare at him and speak without a word - they'd tested that one day - but he himself had to talk out loud to get it to work, or even to concentrate on Philip. He thought that Philip could do it effortlessly, just drawing on the link to speak with him or get his physical state.

"You're practicing your telepathy." Philip's mental voice sounded, as usual, slightly distracted, and there was an undercurrent of amusement.

"...Yeah." Men didn't check on other men's feelings or things like that. Especially remotely. Philip had researched telepathy and empathy when the ability had come up, and he'd listened intently to everything his partner had said, even when he tried to act like it really didn't matter.

It didn't help that it had become harder, not easier as time went on, as if he was losing his connection to Philip.

"You're concerned about our bond." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. 

"Ah, yeah." Had he thought too loud again? "Just thinking about how hard it is to for me to connect."

"I've been contemplating that as well." Philip's mental voice was quiet for a moment. "And the fact that you've always had problems with Gaia Memories, even with Joker to some extent."

"Yeah." Even though Joker was his, he had to confess that it had been slightly harder to use it than he'd like to admit. Like he had some kind of subconscious resistance to the devices. If he was connecting through them to Philip, that could explain why he had to practically strain to feel his partner.

"I'll have to research this further." Shoutarou picked up the start of a Gaia Library lookup, and tried to mentally reach out and haul his partner out of it. That was also something he could do upon occasion ever since Fang had come back, and it actually worked better than most of their connection. Maybe since he had been in the Gaia Library, if extremely briefly. 

"Philip, research it in the morning. We both need to sleep." But it was too late. Philip was researching, and if Shoutarou planned to sleep himself, he had to sever the contact. He did so with some reluctance, hoping that Philip would remember that sleep was important and he needed to do it sometimes.

Turning over, he tried to follow his own advice, curling into his comforter and drifting into sleep.


End file.
